The missing man
Valencia’s and Castellón’s public announcements of their carteles have signalled the end of the programming of the European temporada’s initial ferias, and one leading matador - Daniel Luque - is absent from all of them.
His situation continues a saga that became evident last season, when Andrés Roca Rey’s apparent veto of the Sevillian became known and there were end-of-season rumours seemingly intended to undermine the relationship between Luque and his manager, the French ex-matador Juan Bautista. But the matter has been further highlighted this year because Daniel’s 2023 performances should, by rights, have put him near the top of the list of toreros that empresas should be contracting to appear in their ferias and because there is now significant interest amongst the afición in seeing Roca Rey and Luque on the same cartel.
Of the leading ferias announced to date, Olivenza has opted for Roca Rey to appear in both of the two corridas it is putting on. Valencia is also putting the Peruvian on twice, while an encerrona for Román and a corrida mixta with just one matador has reduced the opportunities for other toreros - however, Sebastián Castella, Pablo Aguado, Manzanares, Alejandro Talavante, Cayetano, Borja Jiménez, Juan Ortega, El Fandi, Paco Ureña and Emilio de Justo have all been chosen to appear ahead of Daniel Luque.
With the carteles for corridas at Valdemorillo (no longer a feria de oportunidad, but one just like any other), Illescas, Almendralejo and Brihuega also announced without Daniel Luque featuring in any of them, that just left Castellón de la Plana’s Feria de la Magdalena as a chance for Daniel (recently pronounced triunfador of Colombia’s Feria de Manizales) to set out his stall in the temporada’s early stages. Indeed, he offered to torear the bulls of Victorino Martín selected for the feria on his own, even though the names of Borja Jiménez and local man Paco Ramos had already been rumoured for a mano a mano with those animals. When Castellón’s carteles were announced, the snub was complete - the originally planned mano a mano would go ahead, and, despite two afternoons featuring Manzanares, there would be no room for Luque.
Luque during last year’s Feria de San Isidro
Meanwhile, the empresa Pagés had been working to put together the carteles for Sevilla’s temporada, including its most prestigious Easter Sunday corrida. With Roca Rey previously announced as a participant in this corrida, would Daniel Luque - who performed superbly in Sevilla last season - also be chosen? The answer was No, the other two toreros on that cartel will be Morante de la Puebla and Sebastián Castella. What Juan Bautista has announced in recompense is that Pagés has contracted his matador for no less than four corridas - three in Sevilla’s Feria de Abril and one in San Miguel - just one less than the city’s favourite, Morante de la Puebla.
The speculation in the media regarding a Roca Rey veto on the sevillano (a veto that the Peruvian effectively admitted in an interview in ABC last May, when he commented that Luque lacked respect towards his family and his team and said, “I don’t want to have someone lacking in respect in the patio de cuadrillas when I’m about to put my life on the line”) has today prompted his manager, Roberto Domínguez, to issue a press release, which, if anything, has probably served to further stoke the flames.
Domínguez states: “Andrés Roca Rey isn’t responsible for Daniel Luque not appearing in ferias such as Olivenza, Valencia, Castellón or Illescas. In Valencia, Andrés is fighting on two afternoons and the feria comprises six corridas. It’s a similar situation at Castellón, where five corridas will take place and Roca Rey is only involved in one. The real question is, why hasn’t Daniel Luque not been part of the other carteles alongside figuras?
“[…] Since Andrés took the alternativa in September 2015, he has been put on together with Daniel Luque on eight occasions. In the same period of time, if I’m not mistaken, Luque has been on the bill with Manzanares four times, five times with Talavante, eight with El Juli and 10 with Sebastián Castella. Taking these figures into account, I think everyone has forgotten a fundamental aspect of bullfighting, the figure of the empresario, who will always aim to put together carteles capable of attracting the largest number of people.”
Andrés Roca Rey
Domínguez goes on to say that he had proposed to Juan Bautista that the two matadors should appear together at Arles this coming September, but that Daniel Luque had attempted to place conditions on the encounter, which would not now go ahead. “There is no veto on our part against Daniel Luque participating in the ferias,” Domínguez adds, before saying this will be his only pronouncement on the matter: “Personal enmity must be resolved between the two toreros. Meanwhile, no one can force a bullfighter to be somewhere he doesn't want to be.”
Juan Bautista was quick to respond to Domínguez’s communique, stating that a veto has indeed existed, as that ABC interview had proved: “There are many empresarios who, for more than a year, have tried to put Roca Rey and Daniel Luque on the same cartel, knowing the interest there is in this amongst aficionados. They’ve told me it’s all been in vain - every attempt to have this cartel has been shut down by the total refusal of Roca Rey.
“I appreciate that Luque’s absence from some ferias is not simply down to Roca Rey’s stance. But it is the case that, when the empresas cannot feature the cartel they want to put on, in most cases they’re not able to offer Luque the contracts he deserves from his performances in front of the bull. Roca's veto of Luque leaves empresas with no room for manoeuvre, particularly in ferias with few festejos or in single events such as Sevilla’s Easter Sunday.
“In all this time, neither Daniel Luque nor I as his representative have said anything about it. Nothing. Knowing of the veto that Daniel was suffering and that made him stay out of many ferias last year and at the beginning of this campaign, we have preferred to remain silent. […] I’m surprised that there’s a wish to stir up a controversy that both Daniel Luque and I have ignored and have not used to promote any feeling of victimhood. And I am even more surprised that the controversy has been stirred up at a time when it may be in the process of being resolved, since both matadors have agreed to meet to talk in the coming days […] Daniel Luque contacted Roca Rey a few days ago to propose a personal meeting, which Roca accepted. They were due to meet shortly. Therefore, I can’t understand the interest in returning to search for a polemic that the protagonists want to resolve through dialogue. Seeking a confrontation, blaming third parties and trying to divert attention, is not the way to do anything other than to continue a controversy that is harming bullfighting as a whole.”
By the looks of things, Daniel Luque will now not open his 2024 campaign in Europe until Arles’s Easter feria, Juan Bautista being in charge of organising the festejos there. And the chances of Andrés Roca Rey and Daniel Luque appearing on the same cartel at any point this season look very slim indeed.